Seven months after Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar wrote to the Prime Minister's Office ( PMO) about instances of millions of dollars paid as bribe to Indian officials by US companies, the CBI has filed its first chargesheet.

The first case involves the US-based Dow Chemicals.

The chargesheet has been filed against R. L. Razzak, a former senior official in the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage, Ministry of Agriculture.

He allegedly took $ 32,000 ( approximately Rs 16 lakh) as bribe from the Indian subsidiary of Dow Chemicals for expediting the registration of its pesticides in the country between 1996 and 2001. Dow had to pay $ 3,25,000 ( around Rs 1.5 crore) as penalty to the US Security and Exchange Commission ( SEC) for this

incident after it was established that Dow had earned this amount as profit after the registration of three of its pesticides - Pride ( ni- 25), Nurelle- D and Dursban - in India.

"Razzak, the former plant protection advisor to the government of India entered into a criminal conspiracy and accepted an illegal gratification of $ 32,000," the chargesheet says.

Ironically, the CBI had registered an FIR in this case in August 2007, but chose to sit on it till Shankar's letter to the PMO. Razzak was an influential member of the registration committee of the Central Insecticide Board, the agriculture ministry's apex regulatory authority responsible for approving pesticides and had allegedly chosen to refuse or delay registrations unless he received money. The bribes were allegedly paid by a senior official of DE- Nocil, the Indian subsidiary of Dow.

Shankar had based her complaint on a US report on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ( FCPA) regarding corrupt practices by US firms across the globe.

The Central Vigilance Commission recently asked the CBI to file a report and look into each of instance of corruption. The central vigilance commissioner also held a meeting with top officials of the ministries of railways and defence, the departments of agriculture and revenue and the Maharashtra government for action against officials who were allegedly bribed.

Mail Today had reported on October 13 how India was sitting on action against corrupt government officials mentioned in Shankar's letter.

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